


a lover left behind

by JRC



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Feelings, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Now Fic-ified, Patch 4.0: Stormblood Spoilers, Patch 4.5: A Requiem For Heroes Spoilers, Those Cutscenes Just Before Shadowbringers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27476527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRC/pseuds/JRC
Summary: A requiem for heroes, a lover left behind,a war is left unfinished, with leader's binds it ties,one hero surges off, to save another world,leaves a broken heart, as the First unfurls.
Relationships: Hien Rijin/Warrior of Light
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	a lover left behind

**Author's Note:**

> The post-StB, pre-ShB cutscenes... from the perspective of one (1) distraught Hien Rijin.

_ A requiem for heroes, a lover left behind,  
a war is left unfinished, with leader's binds it ties,  
one hero surges off, to save another world,  
leaves a broken heart, as the First unfurls. _

* * *

L’lo’s heart is beating its way up her throat as she races, heedless of the other enemies, towards where she knows Hien and their allies face off with Elidibus inhabiting Zenos’ body. 

She can feel every burning breath she takes, her lungs screaming in protest, but none of that matters - all that matters is reaching Hien as soon as possible. Her feet are damp; whether with sweat or blood, someone else’s or her own, she does not care. She has to reach Hien. She has to reach Hien  _ now _ . No,  _ earlier _ than now. Which is impossible, and yet…

As if the thought of Hien facing an Ascian wasn’t terrifying enough on its own… no, it had to be in Zenos’ body. The one body L’lo had never had complete faith in her own ability to bring down. She hadn’t even brought it down atop the Royal Menagerie. Zenos had done that himself.

And now that body is battling Hien.

The miqo’te snarls and digs deep for another burst of strength, her feet flying across the blood-stained soil towards where her lover and her enemy cross blades. It might already be too late. It can’t be. But it might be. And that thought alone allows L’lo to ignore every ache and pain of her own body, to push herself past her limits and sprint harder, faster through the piles of debris and bodies.

_ I’m coming, Hien… just hold on a little longer... _

* * *

“Magic?” Hien chokes out, every ilm of his body screaming out in chorus, begging him to stay down, stay put, give up. Never. “With a Garlean body? That’s hardly fair…” he rasps, giving himself one moment to lie still… before he forces his left arm back, fingers digging into the rough soil. Hien pushes himself up, his muscles trembling, sinking the blade of his katana into the ground to help him stagger back to his knees.

“Still, he must be stopped…” One knee planted firmly on the ground, still clinging to the hilt of his katana for balance, Hien pants, staring across the bleak battlefield at Zenos - or perhaps more accurately, the Ascian inhabiting Zenos’ body. One hand is still planted firmly against the ground as the Lord of Doma sucks in deep heaving breaths, steeling himself to rise to his feet, to throw himself at the Ascian again.

“No matter the cost…” Hien reminds himself, closing his eyes as he hears Zenos’ body approach, each footstep accompanied by the clank of his seemingly-impenetrable armor.

One step. Hien remembers the first time he and L’lo came together; after a battle in Doma, for Doma… one that she really had very little reason to fight in. And yet… ever since coming to retrieve him from the Azim Steppe, L’lo had given nothing less than her all to the Doman cause. For Hien to give anything less to her would be a crime. But it had never been only her efforts towards securing Doma’s freedom that had drawn Hien to the stalwart Warrior of Light…

A second step. L’lo had been a silent, impossibly strong force at his side ever since Hien had first laid eyes on her.  _ Magnificent and not a little terrifying _ … that’s what Hien had called her after the Nadaam. The descriptor rang true still. Even moreso now. He has accompanied her for so little of her journey comparatively, and yet… L’lo has grown so much stronger in only the deceptively short time he has known her. It  _ is _ magnificent and not a little terrifying.  _ She _ is. And Hien will thank the Kami with each breath they see fit to grant him for bringing her to him.

A third step. All Hien has to do is hold out a little longer. Just for long enough for L’lo to reach them. She is coming. He knows she is coming. She must be coming. How could she not? Hien  _ knows _ L’lo. He needs no confirmation. She is coming.

He staggers to his feet, using his katana for leverage, as Zenos continues to stalk towards him. Hien moves to take a step forward, to meet him, pries his katana from the ground, shifts his weight onto his left foot… and his ankle buckles from underneath him, sending him sprawling back into the dirt. He thinks he hears footsteps racing past him.

_ L’lo… I am so sorry… I could not… _

* * *

She watches Hien rise to his feet, then crumble and fall, and L’lo surges forward, her vision going red as she skids to a halt between Hien’s prone form and Zenos’ body, inhabited by Elidibus.

Not today, motherfucker.

* * *

Hien forces himself to look up, hoping against all odds that the footsteps might belong to L’lo. He claws himself forward, then pushes his torso up on one arm, one hand numb around the hilt of his katana as he leans heavily on his elbow, straining to see through the blackness creeping into the edges of his vision.

He… knows those boots.  _ L’lo’s _ boots, Hien thinks, his heart throbbing frantically with love and relief and worry and panic as his lover stands before him. L’los tail is whipping from side to side with agitation as she pants, wraps a blood-spattered hand around the hilt of her own katana, clenches and unclenches her hand until her knuckles pale beneath the pressure. Hien turns his gaze up until he can see the back of her head, her ponytail tugged this way and that by the chaotic winds that tear at the battlefield, the remnants of lethal impacts of machina and cannons and magitek guns.

She stands steady as Zenos continues to approach, her breathing evening out as the searchlights skate over the sky above her, red lasers cutting through the smog on their way to end lives, destroy weapons.

* * *

“Ah, Bringer of Light. It has been too long,” Elidibus says, and she can  _ hear _ the smirk in his voice. He finally ceases his advance, settling back on his heels, without the same predatorial grace that she is so used to seeing that body move with. L’lo can feel her palm sweating around the hilt of her katana, and she ignores it, clenching down harder around the base. 

Her face contorts into a scowl as the silence lengthens, and she spreads her legs, shifting into a defensive stance, still all-too aware of Hien sprawled on the ground behind her. Elidibus will have to cut her down before she will ever let him lay a hand on Hien again.

“No words to mark our reunion?” Elidibus asks, and L’lo bares her teeth at him, her ears pressing flat against her skull. What words could possibly be needed? They both know why they’re here. Elidibus chuckles, and L’lo grits her teeth, willing herself not to attack first. “...so be it.”

* * *

“Equilibrium must be restored…” The Ascian says, not a modicum of emotion in his voice. It sends a shiver down Hien’s spine. “And only your death will redress the balance.”

Hien squeezes his eyes shut, and prays to the Kami for L’lo’s survival. He will give anything, he vows, anything at all, so long as she  _ lives _ . His strength exhausted, the Lord of Doma slumps to the ground, fighting to remain conscious as he hears L’lo cross blades with her most fearsome foe. Hien loses the battle.

* * *

Hien is in his tent when he next wakes. He sits up immediately, and feels lines of stitches tear free from his skin and begin to bleed. The Lord of Doma grunts, clutching an arm to his abdomen to try to stem the bleeding, but swings his legs out of his cot anyway, straining to stand. Yugiri bursts through his tent flaps, at first looking relieved to see him awake, but that relief quickly melting away to be replaced by anger as she rushes to his side and pushes him back down onto his cot by his shoulder.

“My lord! You  _ must rest. _ Lie down and remain still. I will fetch the chirurgeon to…”

“L’lo?” Hien rasps, straining against Yugiri’s hand on his shoulder, turning frantic hazel eyes up to his most faithful friend. “Where is L’lo?”

Yugiri’s expression tells him everything.

L’lo is alive… but she’s gone.

* * *

Hien cannot leave the front to see L’lo in Ishgard. 

He sends his fastest messenger to try to catch her before she inevitably escapes her convalescence obscenely early, but the man returns days later with a dejected expression that tells Hien all he needs to know. Of course L’lo has already left Ishgard. 

Hien asks whether the messenger was able to determine where she went next, and the man seems to shrink beneath his intent gaze. Hien narrows his eyes, and the messenger cracks, admitting that he knows where L’lo went after Ishgard, when she went there, and how long she was there before…

Gone.

L’lo is gone.

It would almost be better if she had left behind a body like the other Scions of the Seventh Dawn… at least then Hien could see  _ some _ part of her. But based on what his man had said… 

L’lo is gone. Body  _ and  _ soul.

Tataru Taru insists that the Warrior of Light will be back in no time, and with the restored Scions to boot, but…

It’s not that Hien doesn’t trust Tataru. She has never led them wrong yet, based on what he knows, what L’lo has told him, what he saw in Doma… 

But L’lo is  _ gone _ . And it feels like a piece of him has gone with her.

He had not even had a chance to thank her for saving him, and Yugiri, and Lyse.

Had not even had a chance to ensure she was still whole after facing down the Ascian. 

Had not had a chance to plead with her to be careful, to pause and think of herself every now and again, to beg her to please come back. To come back to him. To come home.

And he can’t help but feel dread’s icy fingers snaking around his heart, squeezing it until it becomes hard to breathe. He  _ knows _ L’lo would lay down her life for the Scions. For the people of the new world she has been summoned to, to save.

And Kami help him, but he  _ prays _ she is not given the chance to do so. No matter who else may suffer for her survival. 

He would sacrifice a world so that his exceptional, impossible L’lo might live.

It is a good thing whoever summoned her had not deigned to bring Hien along.

**Author's Note:**

> I think A Lot about the fact that Hien was ready to fight to the death to give L'lo time to arrive and fight Zenos. And then... she runs off to save the Scions.  
> Blame the book club. Or just come screech at me there! Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched and Enabling Book Club: https://discord.gg/ME4eAEt


End file.
